


Ambience

by ForestFiresong



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Giftstuck 2015, M/M, it's really more a bunch of vaguely interconnected one shots than anything, no SBurb AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 13:51:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5458793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForestFiresong/pseuds/ForestFiresong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snippets of Karkat and Eridan's tumultuous relationship during one of the most important periods of conquest of their planet's history. Or how even when it feels like everything it changing, in the end you discover nothing much really does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ambience

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fadedlikethelilac](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadedlikethelilac/gifts).



> So I wasn't originally planning on this fic to be so long, but it just.... happened. Hopefully it isn't too long and makes sense (since I initially wrote it out of chronological order, so it might get confusing). If there are any continuity errors, I apologize. Overall though this was fun to write and I wanted I struck the right balance between plot and romance elements! I hope you like it!

When Karkat saw Eridan’s face for the first time, he could almost feel a tiny crack in the foundation of his thoughts, thoughts of quadrants of red and black and pale and his own fragile existence beginning to weaken, chipped away and broken down till they started to crumble. 

Simply put, he looked like a douchebag. Even at six sweeps old his face seemed affixed in a state of arrogance and superiority, a surveying gaze that went between _I’m too good to look at anybody_ and _someone please look at me._ Karkat stared at him, delicate earfins and violet freckles and the dramatic entrance of a cape blowing in the wind and thought, _this is definitely him._

The two of them had met through Trollian and had acquaintances and had argued and talked and lamented over each other’s romantic woes before finally decided that it was time for them to meet, in person. Karkat had been hesitant to make the trek all the way over to the beach to meet him, even in his days of innocence before his eyes began to burn red and the whole world would know that he was an outcast, or an outlier. He never knew when he would cross the baseline from “angry unassuming troll” to “unstoppable threat to the Empire”. In a way it was almost flattering that the Condesce herself considered red-blooded trolls so dangerous that she would go out of her way to cull them, when in reality Karkat could barely slice grubloaf with his sickles and got winded from trying to climb a tree. 

Well, the thought of it helped ease the fear when he considered imminent death, anyway. 

But Eridan insisted that they meet and that they do it at the seashore and Karkat couldn’t really refuse, anyway, because he did want to meet Eridan and speak to him in person and maybe punch him full in the mouth. Not even out of animosity or from waxing particularly pitch, but maybe just because anyone who met Eridan could agree that a punch to the teeth would not be out of line at all. “Hey, Kar!” Eridan turned to him, the cold highblood features on his face relaxing into an almost-welcoming smile. 

In that moment he could find his foundation growing even more wobbly, but this time, he had nothing to stop it. 

x-x-x 

A sonic wave ripped through the water, sending the previously small waves crashing onto the shore in large walls of water. Karkat leaped back, his feelings towards water the same as an irritable meowbeast’s. 

“How-w w-was that?” Eridan placed the rifle over his shoulder, his face smug. Karkat felt himself moving several paces over, staring warily at the still-smoking tip of Ahab’s Crosshairs. 

"Fucking unnecessary, if you ask me! What did you just shoot, some random highblood going for a swim? Was this really what you made me come all the way out here for?” 

Eridan shrugged, a frown forming on his face. “No one lives around here, Kar. I probably hit a w-whale or somethin’, an’ no one cares about those w-whales, let me tell ya, they’re straight bastards.” 

“I don’t even want to know what’s in that water.” Karkat crossed his arms. That was the highbloods’ realms, the depths of the sea seemingly able to swallow anything that entered them. Even Eridan barely spent any time underwater, so Karkat figured he had a perfect excuse to avoid the seashore, despite that being his usual meeting place with Eridan. 

“I v-visited Fef’s place, it w-wasn’t so bad.” Eridan gazed out at the dark ocean for a moment, and then turned to Karkat. “Anyw-way, don’t tell me you didn’t think that w-was aw-wesome. I could probably take out a spacecraft from miles aw-way just from this v-vantage point, that’s how powerful the lasers are.” 

“But why would you want to?” 

_“Why do you think_ , Kar, it’s for w-when I join the empress’s royal fleet! I already know I’m goin’ to be a captain so I have to keep my skills in ship shape. Ha, Fef would like that one…” 

Karkat paused momentarily. Even though he’d met Eridan multiple times in person, he still hadn’t breached the topic of blood color, or even thought about it. It was a thought that Karkat had ruminated over multiple times in his head—whether or not he should ever tell _anyone_ about his status as Alternia’s Most Wanted (not to flatter himself too much). Keeping with the idea that he would die as soon as he reached adult age, or as the color started to appear in his eyes, it was probably a better idea to live peacefully than to potentially put himself in danger. 

“I guess I just haven’t thought about it.” 

Eridan shook his head. His face was an expression Karkat would almost call disgusted. “You can’t go around thinkin’ that w-way. Our generation is important, you know-w? About the time that w-we’ll be joinin’ the army, the Empress’s plan w-will be beginnin’ and w-we’ll be part of it.” 

“Maybe that’s important for you, but nobody whose under teal will even matter in the grand scheme of things. No one gives a shit about us, we’ll be dead by the time this all becomes important.” 

Eridan narrowed his eyes slightly. With his cape billowing behind him, the gray sky and wine-dark sea serving as a backdrop, he became an imposing figure. Karkat could see how he could fit right in amongst the military officers on the royal fleet. 

But he also thought about Eridan’s trembling hands and his quickly flashing eyes and the way his voice got stuck in his throat as it raised several pitches; he had no cap and no safety, and he was a loose cannon and a tumultuous sea. Karkat knew he should be afraid. 

But for some reason he was not. 

“Well, whatever.” Karkat walked closer to Eridan, giving his gun a sideways glance. “I guess that was kind of cool, or it would be if you used for anything remotely useful.” 

Eridan held it tightly to his chest, his expression of pride returned to his face. “You’ll see.”

x-x-x 

That night, Karkat researched about Earth. 

Well, to be more precise, he went over all of the documents and propaganda he had tossed carelessly to the floor or into the trash; he looked at all of the websites and files he should’ve, by the Empress’s order, but had chosen to ignore. While “Earth” might’ve sounded foreign and vague to him, most of its information was common knowledge to anyone paying attention. 

In Karkat’s mind, because he was going to die as soon as he reached the military, he had no interest in their endeavors. He was only several sweeps away from being an adult and considered the space of time between ‘now’ and ‘then’ for himself to enjoy. It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to think of ways to circumvent the system and survive past adulthood; it was that there simply wasn’t any way. Day by day he examined the mirror, and while it gleaned no results, he felt as though he could almost feel the red seeping into his iris. 

Regardless, Karkat had no plans for the future and so therefore had done only the bare minimum when it came to preparing for the day he would join the Empress’s fleet. Yearly censuses and information files were all that he bothered with. 

Until now. 

It started off as idle curiosity from his conversation with Eridan earlier, but as Karkat read the public listing of all Alternian territories and planned conquests, his interest began to pique. He sat leaning against his recuperacoon, the glow of his husktop the only light in the room besides the faint seepings of moonlight from his window, and stared at the image of a cloudy green and blue planet. 

After all, Earth was special. Most of the other conquered planets had gone down easy and were of little value aside from conquest and pursuit of power. The Royal Fleet and their army could extinguish the native life forms with no trouble, and when they did coexist, they did so through oppression and utmost control. At least, these were the brave tales passed on about the military. 

As he kept reading, Karkat was amazed how much of the information was public; he had expected most details to be confidential, but apparently the Condesce’s plans were much further underway than he had thought. Of course, the information was only a general overview of the planet and its species, but nonetheless, it was not some sort of secretive military operation. In fact, from the way it was being presented, it was being heralded as the coming of a new age or something like that. Despite that, Karkat found himself almost convinced, and as he looked at the picture, he thought maybe he really was looking at the future of their planet. 

x-x-x 

One hand pressed into the floor, fingers curling and nails biting into Karkat’s palm, while the other one plunged itself into Eridan’s hair, grabbing a fistful and pulling. 

Eridan jerked, his voice rising into a high-pitched sound of pain, and turned so that Karkat’s straddling position was jolted and he was on his back, on the floor, and now on the defensive. 

Naturally smaller than Eridan, but not by much, Karkat gripped tighter into his hair, enough to make Eridan’s face twist and warp but not enough where he could feel it uprooting. It was still hard to know the limits, to know when to stop; they both just went with the moment and their instincts, and only afterwards as he examined the bruises scattered across his skin did Karkat realize how dangerous that could be. 

Grabbing the collar of Karkat’s shirt, Eridan pulled him upwards and into a kiss. Their noses smashed together and their teeth clicked, and it was rough and desperate and a constant battle to see who would make it out on top. Of all of their time being together, Karkat had never had a romantic kiss with Eridan. There was no softness or sweetness about it, unlike the ones he had imagined back when being red or pale was actually a possibility. Eridan’s glasses were askew and Karkat could taste his blood as he took his bottom lip between his teeth and bit down _hard._

What had it been, a sweep ago when things turned out like this? That was around when Karkat revealed his blood color to everyone, and survived and now somehow one thing had led to another and they were rolling around the floor of Karkat’s hive like teenagers getting their first hot taste of a pitch black relationship. 

They were almost adults. They were almost ready to leave the “safe” embrace of their home planet and brave a star system that they had never been to before, to conquest a planet they had never seen before, and begin new lives they hadn’t even dreamed of. So Karkat had started to revert, to fall back into the familiar pattern of arguing with Eridan and getting closer and closer, and then to a real fight, and then… 

Back when they were younger, their relationship had been pretty close to being pale. They had even been teased by their friends for it, and Karkat had assumed that was the direction they would go in. They had a habit of rambling to each other about their woes—in Eridan’s case, any time even the smallest inconvenience occurred. They gossiped together. Their relationship was based on fixing and critiquing others’ relationships, including their own. They had quite a strong base for becoming moirails. And yet… 

In the end, they clashed. Eridan was far too malleable. His emotions reassembled themselves to fit whatever quadrant he thought his partner was edging into, and Karkat didn’t have the patience for that. He didn’t have patience for a lot of Eridan’s behaviors and mannerisms, actually, but he was frustratingly, annoyingly attracted regardless. He let himself get pulled into a quintessential kismesis, with his thoughts fluctuating between _“I need you”_ and _“I need you to die.”_ In the end, maybe the only roadblock to being Eridan’s moirail had been that it was simply too much for anyone to handle. 

As Karkat saw it, hate and love were two sides of the same coin and both easy to handle and easy to mold into a relationship. All you needed was base attraction. Then with that came either pity or annoyance, and you meandered down whichever path that was, following the flow of your feelings. They were spur of the moment, burning in your stomach kind of relationships, where you didn’t need to think and all you needed to do was act. Compared to the conciliatory relationships, which were relationships of constant balance that had to be approached with adequate thought, which made them harder. It was easier to let someone fall into your arms than into your head, after all. 

Either way, Karkat had terrible, mixed-up feelings for Eridan and whether or not they were still pale, it didn’t matter. They fell into a routine of pitch-black and that was how it went, because it was easier and neither of them ever had a good handle on their emotions anyway. Eridan was happy; Karkat could tell by how wholeheartedly he put himself into it. Concupiscent relationships were better because they served as a good outlet, although anyone who had interacted with Eridan knew he probably needed a moirail more than a kismesis.  


It didn’t matter, Karkat decided, as the intensity of their movements faded and Eridan pushed their foreheads together as the two of them lay in dim light and quiet breathing. A bruise bloomed across Karkat’s collarbone; not only a mark of Eridan upon him, but a searing-red reminder of his own status as a mutant. A lowblood. And somehow that didn’t even matter anymore, partially thanks to the troll leaning over him, his lips bleeding dark violet.  


Somehow this type of relationship removed all of the walls separating them until it was just violence and then this sort of intimacy, where nothing mattered. Karkat decided he liked that, as he moved his away on onto Eridan’s shoulder. The freeing peace, of, for at least a moment, nothing mattering. That was why this relationship worked.  


It really was laughable to think they were almost adults ready to make contributions to the Empire and live like functioning trolls. They were the same as they were at six sweeps, only they pretended more and more they were above such childish ideals such as running away from your problems.  


Yes, that had to be the funniest one yet.  


x-x-x  


Realizing that his death wasn’t completely imminent was extremely liberating.  


Ever since Karkat had developed the maturity to recognize his status as a mutant, death had been a constant dark shadow on the corner of his mind (as if trolls growing up on Alternia didn’t have enough of those to deal with already).  


He hadn’t exactly formulated a plan—whether he’d go out with guns blazing, or try to make a run for it. Whether he’d beg for help or take his death silently. All that he knew was that once he became an adult, his eye color would surface and his skin would tinge red, making him a brightly colored target for any troll on Alternia, and if that didn’t happen, then the Empress’s drones would find him out when the time came or he’d be taken out trying to board the spaceship upon reaching adulthood. It didn’t matter how and it didn’t matter when; all that mattered to Karkat was that it _would_ happen and he had to be prepared.  


Things didn’t exactly work out that way.  


As the sweeps passed by, though he tried to stop it, Karkat became desperate. It was hard to admit, but at his core, he was scared, and he couldn’t stop himself from laying awake at night, trying to imagine what the pain would feel like. He tried to force himself into cynicism and apathy, but it didn’t work. Nothing worked. The sopor had long since lost its calming effect on him, and every night he burrowed into it deeper and deeper, trying to find one moment of solace from his constantly buzzing mind.  


He just couldn’t stop thinking; couldn’t stop thinking of Terezi’s badly drawn reaction images and Gamzee and his stupid horns, and watching Troll Will Smith and meeting Eridan on the beach and the way the moons and stars looked every time he stared out of his hive window and how he really didn’t want to die.  
And as his time grew closer and his breaking point more imminent, with nothing more to do, Karkat told Sollux.  


He’d also envisioned what it’d be like confessing to be a mutant several times, but this time it went off track almost immediately. There was none of the defiant, rebellious courage he’d imagined himself projecting, in blatant rejection of the hemospectrum’s oppression and his own death. He’d tried to muster up the bravery, but had lost it almost as soon as Sollux opened the door to his hive.  


The situation had already been established as grave by the fact that Karkat wanted to meet in person (which he and Sollux only did occasionally) but was only extrapolated by Karkat’s downtrodden demeanor, which he’d tried to dispel as much as possible, an attempt that turned out to be hopeless.  


“What is it, KK?” he asked as the two of them sat in his room, leaning against Sollux’s bifurcated recuperacoon. Karkat knew an insult or joke was meant to follow his words, as went Sollux usual way of conversing, but perhaps he sensed the gravity of the situation, because he added nothing more to the sentence and merely stared at Karkat with an unblinking gaze of red and blue.  


Embarrassing as it was, Karkat was almost certain that if he spoke aloud he’d choke up. He tried to envision another way to communicate to Sollux that he was a mutant, and before he could think up any better ideas, he brought his hand to his mouth and bit it.  


It was a terrible idea. Karkat had no idea his fangs were so sharp, and almost spit at the metallic taste of blood before swallowing it down. Blood started to trickle from the bitemarks on his knuckles, a bright red against his skin. He regretted it, but regardless, it got the point across; he could see Sollux’s eyes widen and his body stiffen with surprise.  


“You’re-”  


“I’m a mutant. I know, I know.” Karkat’s hands ran through his hair, twisting and pulling as he tried to loom anywhere but at Sollux, or at the disgusting, bloody display that was his hand. “I know, and I just thought I should tell you… that you deserve to know, since you’re my friend, and I’m running out of time and….” He took a deep breath, and his throat was tight. “I don’t care what you do now or what you think. I just thought you should know.”  


The silence stretched on and Karkat could slowly feel himself going crazy. He wanted Sollux to say something, anything, or punch him or call Her Imperious Condescension herself. He couldn’t take this.  


He was on the verge of saying something himself when Sollux finally spoke.  


“I don’t care.”  


“Huh?”  


“I don’t care if you’re a mutant or not. Why do you think that would change anything? I’ve known you for a goddamn long time, I’m stuck with you at this point. In the end we’re both lowbloods and the hemospectrum will treat us like shit, so why should it matter?”  


Karkat stared at him blankly, the shock running like ice through his veins. He didn’t know what to say.  


“And…” Sollux leaned back, his brow furrowing. “I’ll help you.”  


“What do you mean?”  


“I mean I won’t let you die. We’ll figure something out before the time comes.”  


This was almost surreal. Karkat had never imagined that he would receive the help of his friends—he hadn’t even imagined past confessing to them. Sollux’s words alone brought a warm spark of hope to his chest. “…Really?”  


“Of course. I’d be an asshole if I didn’t.”  


“You’re already an asshole.” Karkat said, but he could feel a smile stretching across his face and even felt the slightest traces of tears coming on, either from relief of happiness or even maybe just the shock that Sollux would accept him and even offer to help him in the bat of an eye; he didn’t know if he deserved that pity, after all of their arguments and messages filled with Karkat’s incoherent screaming. He didn’t think he deserved a friend like that.  


“…Are you crying? KK, oh my god.”  


“No, I’m not!” Karkat wiped rapidly at his eyes. “Shut your chute, there’s no possible way on this godforsaken planet I’d ever-”  


“It’s ok, you know.”  


“…Thanks.”  


x-x-x  


It was through Sollux that Karkat managed to surpass a major roadblock between him and surviving past adulthood—his eyes. Well, it was a combined effort between Sollux and Equius, whose acceptance Karkat had not been expecting. With the blueblood’s strict adherence to the hemospectrum, Karkat had been planning on not telling him at all, lest he wanted his face to be smashed in. In fact, despite how well talking to Sollux had gone, Karkat had decided maybe it’d be safer to just not tell any highbloods at all (excluding Gamzee, who Karkat knew just straight up didn’t care).  


However, he did tell Nepeta, through Sollux’s prompting, and after her surprisingly-positive reaction, she told Equius, since apparently moirails can’t keep secrets for two goddamn seconds before they go spewing it to their quadrantmate. Karkat would’ve been more pissed had he not had absolute faith in Nepeta, at least in that she wouldn’t tell Equius if he actually would be a threat to Karkat.  


Equius still didn’t appear to be 100% (completely intended) on board with the idea; however, he still collaborated with Sollux to make Karkat a pair of contacts that he could wear for long periods at a time that would conceal his eye color from essentially all detection. That would keep him safe at least temporarily, but Karkat still had several hurdles, namely the physical examination that accompanied the joining of the Fleet.  


And somehow, the solution to this problem came in the form of Eridan.  


When even _Equius_ had come to accept him, Karkat knew that he probably had nothing to worry about when it came to Eridan. They key word being probably. After all, despite his obsession with the hemospectrum, Equius was still lower down than the violetblood. Karkat knew Eridan could treat lowbloods with derision (rich coming from someone who was scraping for quadrants half of his time, honestly) which made him wary of how he would treat someone who was even lower than the most burgundy of trolls.  


And they were even in some sort of quadrant, although Karkat had no idea which one, since it felt like they fluctuated between black and pale every day and Karkat didn’t know where he stood except that it wasn’t on solid ground, their relationship more akin to the choppy waves of the sea.  


But Eridan had been able to tell something was wrong with him almost right away and he wouldn’t stop pestering and needling him and Karkat could almost _feel_ the steam rising out of his head.  


“You want to know what’s wrong with me, fucknut? I’ll _tell_ you what’s wrong with me!” Karkat paused. Once again, he didn’t have tangible evidence for his blood color on hand at the moment, but he really didn’t want to bite his hand again (that _hurt_ ) so he decided to just come out with it.  


“I’m a mutant.” Karkat said those words, and then he almost thought his heart would stop. This was a badly thought-out plan, worse than the biting his hand one. In fact, this plan wasn’t even thought out at all. He didn’t want to believe that Eridan would hurt him, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility, especially since many highbloods suffered from a sort of instability that he’d recognized in Eridan ever since he’d first met him.  


And even if Eridan didn’t lash out… there was always the possibility of rejection. Granted, in his present situation it was probably preferable to death, since Karkat’s determination to live was stronger than ever at this point, but the thought of it still sent a ripple of pain through his chest, and he didn’t want to imagine that scenario anymore than the one before it.  


But Eridan didn’t even react. In fact, the look on his face made it seem like he hadn’t even heard Karkat at all. Eridan stared at him, eyes wide behind his stupid hipster glasses. “W-what’d you say?”  


Karkat took a deep breath. The courage that he’d been desiring since revealing his secret to Sollux was suddenly starting to brim in his chest—maybe it was a result of telling many trolls before Eridan, or maybe he truly was becoming braver.  


“What’s been bothering, that you won’t shut up about, is the fact that _I’m a mutant._ Yeah, you heard me right. That blood color you also won’t shut up about? Bright-ass cherry red, to quote Terezi and her massive ladyboner for anything of that hue. I’m not on the hemospectrum, and I probably should be dead now, and I probably _will_ be dead in a few sweeps time, but I’ll be damned if I don’t find some way to survive until then. And if you… if you hate me, then…” Karkat trailed off. He couldn’t finish the rest of the sentence because he didn’t even know what followed himself.  


Eridan was still staring at him. Karkat couldn’t read the emotion in his eyes, but he could feel his heart pounding rapidly in his chest. Of all of his confessions, this had to be one of the hardest to do.  


“Kar…”  


Just his name gave Karkat conviction: Eridan wouldn’t hurt him. Maybe that was a fucked up thing to be relieved about, but class differences were a fragile thing to toy with, and to survive, you had to constantly be on guard. Being weak-willed or trusting made you easy prey, and if you wouldn’t adapt to that line of thinking yourself, then the entire planet would force you to.  


“…What?”  


“You never told me all this time…”  


“Of course I didn’t!” Karkat glared at him. “You—you’re….” he tried to find a way to phrase it correctly, and then gave up and continued. “You’re so high on the hemospectrum, I didn’t know how you’d react… Hell, I didn’t even plan on telling anyone in the first place, I just thought I’d go out quietly, which is fitting for such a pathetic, miserable—”  


“You think I’d hate you over somethin’ like that?” Eridan’s face was still unreadable, but his eyes were glowing intensely in the dim light. Karkat didn’t know what to say, so he mutely nodded.  


Eridan mulled it over for a moment. “I… I don’t…” he trailed off and then picked it up again. “I guess maybe I w-would’ve, a couple of sweeps ago, but what does it matter now? W-we’re all getting off this stupid planet an’ goin’ to a new one soon enough, and there the hemospectrum w-won’t even matter, because w-we’ll all be the rulin’ class there.”  


“You don’t seriously believe the hemospectrum will become irrelevant just because we conquered some other random planet, do you?”  
Eridan considered, and then spoke. “No. But I do think things are changin’.”  


“That’s just the flow of time, I guess. Nothing stays unchanged.” Karkat leaned back on his hands. “Who knows if I’ll be around to see it, though.”  
“W-what do you mean?” Eridan glanced at him curiously.  


“What do you think I mean dumbass, I’m not making it two steps into that spaceship and you know it.”  


“W-well…” Eridan frowned and his brows knit together. “There’s got to be some w-way…”  


“If you have any ideas I’d love to hear them.” Karkat didn’t know why he was suddenly taking such a casual approach to the idea of his death, but he figured maybe it was a byproduct of his relief from Eridan not hurting him, or hating him, and simply accepting him. In a way, it was a nice present to realize his friends were all more open-minded than he’d thought they were. Maybe he’d been scared of nothing this whole time, when he could’ve been reaching out. Maybe things really were changing.  


“Maybe…” Eridan stopped and shook his head. “No, that’s…”  


“What is it?” Karkat asked. “Listen, if you couldn’t tell, I’m pretty fucking desperate. I’ll take anything.”  


Suddenly Eridan wouldn’t look him in the eye, and he was pulling at his scarf and shifting around like the idea he had come across was so scandalous. Karkat wanted to tell him that he really didn’t have the patience for dramatics and to just get out with it when he spoke.  


“W-well, if you are in a quadrant w-with a highblood, then you get to bypass a lot of the security regulations… if you’re careful enough you could completely slip under the radar.”  


“So you’re just suggesting I go out there and find some hoity-toity highblood who is stupid enough to—oh.”  


“Oh.” Eridan repeated. Karkat could almost hear the tremor of nervousness in his voice, either a concealed laugh or sob.  


“Are you actually suggesting—”  


“Only if you w-want to!” Eridan threw his hands up, almost as a defensive measure. “I know we’ve been dancin’ around a quadrant and the w-whole thing is really unclear but I’m bein’ serious here Kar, if you w-would—”  


“If I want to?” Karkat stared at him, jaw dropped. _“If I want to?_ Eridan, what the hell kind of question is that? This is my fucking life on the line, not if I want a cup of sugar or something!”  


“So then—”  


“Of course I want to!” Karkat had never imagined, in all his years, that it would end up like this, but then again, he hadn’t really imagined much of a future in the first place. And the burning spreading across his chest—born from sweeps of wondering and waiting—was enough of an indication to him that it was the right choice.  


Eridan blinked. “Really?”  


“I mean…” Karkat turned away. He hated his hot face and chest and trembling hands. He thought he had it together but he didn’t, of course he didn’t. His emotions were always too out of control like this, no matter how hard he tried to quell them. “Since it’s a matter of life and death and all.”  
For some reason, that made Eridan burst out laughing, which only made Karkat’s face hotter. “You’re such a dick, Kar.” He said in between chuckles. “Such a dick all the flippin’ time.”  


“…Whatever, I don’t need to hear that from you!”  


_Even without the death part, I still would’ve chosen you._  


x-x-x  


The glass was cold; Karkat could feel the chill seeping into his skin from the very first touch, and even more so as he leaned his forehead against it, staring into a cosmos much darker and colder than any glass could ever be.  


Here on the spaceship, part of the Condesce’s royal fleet, it felt as though the stars were right within Karkat’s grasp, if not for the glass and metal and vast stretches of empty space separating them. It was even more different from on Alternia, where they seemed just a vague backdrop to the dark sky’s two glowing moons. Now they inhabited the same space—just Karkat, a spacecraft, and millions of boiling balls of gas.  


Highblood perks had it so that Eridan had a large living and working space aboard the spaceship, compared to the lowblood laborers crammed three to a dorm only miles below them. This fact had been stated to Karkat many times from Sollux’s constant beeping on his husktop, giving him a running commentary on the conditions that he too would’ve experienced had he not been so ‘important’. The derision in his voice was palpable through the glowing screen; Karkat merely rolled his eyes and went on with it, since mocking was a given in any relationship with Sollux.  


Of course, his ‘importance’ was only for official documents. He was Eridan Ampora’s quadrantmate, and therefore allowed to travel with him wherever he went, which was how he landed a place with him in his cushy cabin aboard the spacecraft. Several sweeps in training and Eridan’s proficiency with a rifle and his general blood color had landed him a high enough position in the military that he was now en route to one of the Empress’s most important missions concerning the future of Alternia in decades.  


And Karkat, well, Karkat still carried his sickles, a reminder of when he constantly tried to picked fights, and then had Eridan lick his wounds, and he would repay the favor because it turned out the two of them were the quite the quarrelsome duo, or at least they used to be. Karkat now slightly attempted to keep a low profile, if only because as it was, making the wrong enemy could be dangerous. Even with Eridan there to bail him out from whatever conflict he decided to get himself into, Karkat was still a mutant, and he still held on to the fear that maybe one day Eridan would decide it was too much trouble to sweep up after someone who wasn’t even a part of the hemospectrum that he himself topped. Given his social status and personality, Eridan had no such qualms and still managed to get his ass kicked on an occasion. As they say, old habits die hard, and sometimes they didn’t die at all, and Eridan’s hostile nature gaining him many an enemy.  


Although it was true that he had mellowed out considerably since the two of them were six sweeps old and only dreaming of what it might be like to be part of the Empress’s fleet, but Karkat could still sense Eridan’s willingness to argue, his nature that made him shift the blame from everywhere but himself. Karkat had to know; he was privy to it.  


Karkat withdrew himself from the window and turned around to face the cabin, its interior done up in violet—the space needed to be marked out as highblood only, as always. Everything was luxurious, neat and untouched; so he flung himself down onto the nearest soft surface, wrinkling the sheets and discarding a pillow to the floor.  


_Here’s the mark of a lowblood, assholes._  


What did those documents say-- moirail? Maybe that was the laughable part, that Karkat didn’t even know what quadrant he was in. It might’ve been easier to figure out if they didn’t go from confessing their woes to each other to face-down, hair-pulled sort of conversation, where every word was a choked insult spat with blood.  


To be fair, though, Karkat was pretty sure he never actually knew in the first place.  


x-x-x  


There was something extremely comforting and familiar about the kick of a gun against Eridan’s shoulder, and the spattering of bullets against the target on the far wall. If he was glad for anything, it was that the spaceship he was on came equipped with a full shooting range, so that he could keep his skills sharp in preparation for the coming missions.  


Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed to use his preferred weapon, Ahab’s Crosshairs, on the ship because its laser blast was far too explosive for the spaceship (large as it was). Thankfully, there was a selection of plenty of other guns that fit his strife specibus, so Eridan didn’t mind too much, as long as he got to shoot something.  


It had been awhile, maybe half a sweep, since they had first boarded the ship, and they hadn’t even seen the main attraction yet. Earth was a ways away in their view, although they had received multiple reports from other members of the fleet who were drawing close. Eridan hadn’t realized it, but all of the spacecraft all across the galaxy, except for several required for defense and upkeep of already-conquered planets, were en route to Earth. It really was the likes of a full scale invasion, and he had a hard time attempting to quell the excitement stirring in his heart—the eagerness of someone about to participate in something truly great, something that would make its way into the history book for decades to come.  


As it was, they really were some of the last to tag onto the expedition. The other spacecrafts were packed full of aging lowblood and highbloods well into their sweeps, having already conquered planets and explored new places long before any of them. To these trolls, they were little less than grubs coming straight from their cocoons. This only made Eridan more determined to prove himself, to establish a rank amongst all of these military heroes whose prowess he had admired from the worn pages of books back home in Alternia.  


He’d even already had his first “mission”, although it was essentially just a small landing on an already-conquered planet, where he and a group of highbloods had roamed to get a feel for the natural environment and practice taking out enemies (in this case, the local fauna, which proved to be barely a threat). He had told Karkat all about upon his return to the ship, but realized as he spoke that it barely compared to what Earth would be like.  


Karkat, much to his chagrin, was not allowed on any missions, partially because his blood color and partially because of his build, or the fact that he hadn’t filled out the requisite forms that would allow such a thing. That was, of course, due to the fact that a physical examination was much too dangerous because of his blood color, and given the precarious situation they had landed themselves in, it was better not to tempt fate. He was, however, allowed to perform menial labor and tasks around the ship, and spent most of his days with Sollux down several levels on the ship, “helping” him with his coding.  


Eridan wasn’t entirely sure what Karkat would do once they got to Earth, but he knew that every troll was expected to pitch in any way they could. In a way, the invasion of Earth was already started. Earlier, several smaller pods were sent through Earth’s atmosphere, containing small squads of trolls who were merely there to scope out parts of the planet and report back with the necessary information. The same maneuver had been repeated sweeps earlier, where the Condesce had collected her initial information on Earth, but this mission was planned to go much longer.  


For the time being, all they could do was wait to approach their destination.  


Eridan aimed at the target again, squeezing the trigger and watching his bullet fly directly into the head of the humanoid-looking target.  


He was ready, or at least he wanted to be, and in the end that would have to be what got him through.  


x-x-x  


A blast ripped through the ground and sent Eridan reeling back into the dirt, curled into a fetal position and protecting his face, since his helmet already had the back of his head and his horns covered.  


He coughed up the dust and dirt and spit, feeling as though his skin was drying out already. A small stream of purple spilled onto the pale ground, a result of his fangs going down on his bottom lip when the impact occurred.  


For a few moments he lay there, gripping onto his gun and absorbing the shock. He had been separated from his squad, if only briefly, and could hear his radio crackling only a few feet away. He really should get going. The humans could still find him like this, and in such a vulnerable state that could be bad.  


But for some reason Eridan’s limbs couldn’t move. He felt as though his limbs were frozen, and his mind repeating on endless loop. His first mission on planet Earth was already proving to be full of surprises, as bumpy as the turbulence when they first passed through the atmosphere and descended upon the planet. First was the surprise at the humans retaliating. Granted, it was only a couple of them, but their reaction had been swift and violent, with deadly accuracy as well. It appeared that trolls weren’t the only species who could shoot a target whose center they could barely see.  


And then there was the issue of the sun, which was always hot and bright and shining whenever the humans were active. Eridan’s mission was planned to last a couple of days, so while they attempted to be active at night, they were forced—as they were currently—to move into action during the daytime. Even with special glasses equipped, Eridan couldn’t stand it. He wished he had half of Kanaya’s durability when it came to such a thing.  


But the other shock occurred to Eridan in a completely different way. As he lay there in the dirt, he couldn’t stop an image from playing over in his head; one of a human caught in the way of one of his fellow soldier’s bullets. Their soft body had gone limp and then from the hole had flowed a brightly colored liquid.  


_They have red blood._  


Eridan had been taken aback, almost to the point where he felt he couldn’t breathe. That color was Karkat’s; for a split second he could almost imagine it was Karkat laying there, blood seeping from a perfectly round bullet hole in his midsection. He knew it wasn’t, of course, but the color, so strongly associated with Karkat, had instilled such shock in him he could barely move.  


It had to have been in the files, or he had to have heard it somewhere before. Eridan couldn’t believe he didn’t know such a key detail about the invasion. And yet, he felt almost sick to his stomach thinking about it.  


Trying to block out all thoughts, Eridan slowly pulled himself up and reached for the radio. He was about to don his headset when a bullet crackled past his face, so close he could almost feel the hairs on his head stand up, and flew into a tree only meters from him. This made him leap to his feet and scramble for safety, cocking his gun and scanning the area for a threat as he did so.  


In Eridan’s line of sight he could see an Earth female, her skin dark and sun-worn and her hair a long cascade of black waves. Her eyes flashed almost impossibly green behind perfectly round glasses, which searched the area like a hunter looking for its next prey. In fact, that’s exactly what she was doing, and Eridan nervously eyed the rifle she carried over her shoulder.  


The spaceship wasn’t too far away, and he was confident in his abilities to run. He’d half to measure them against this earthling’s ability to shoot, however—and if he took much longer he knew he wouldn’t like his chances.  


Trying to push out of his mind the images of bright red blood, Eridan turned and fled.  


x-x-x  


Stepping out of the spaceship felt like coming home after a long journey, even though the planet Earth was far, far from Karkat’s home and the journey was barely close to being over, and if they were being honest, was just beginning.  


It was almost nighttime, but not quite, just close enough where Karkat managed to catch a glimpse of the sun just on the horizon. It was a shining orange ball, spreading its hues to the clouds so that they glowed with the same fiery intensity as it did. Far above it the sky paled into yellow and then darkened, so that the Earth’s single moon and many, many stars began to show themselves.  


He wondered if they had as many stars as Alternia. He wondered if they’d ever have a moment’s peace to count.  


“Hey.” Karkat glanced to Eridan, who was offering him his hand. He looked beyond him, into the looming forest and its dark depths just a few paces away, and the uncertainty and fear and constant caution that accompanied every step that he felt on this planet. Even though he could feel the dirt beneath his feet and the slight wind in his hair, Karkat doubted that he felt solid ground.  


Well, at least he knew there was one thing he could always believe in.  


He took Eridan’s hand, and they began to walk into the ever-darkening night, until the earthen sun had slipped below the horizon and the only thing they had to guide their way was each other.


End file.
